The present invention relates to a rinsing composition for use in rinsing silicon wafers and the like, a method for rinsing silicon wafers using such a rinsing composition, and a method for manufacturing silicon wafers using such a rinsing composition.
When a silicon wafer is polished using a polishing composition, abrasive grains and the like contained in the polishing composition generally adhere to the polished silicon wafer. The abrasive grains adhering to the silicon wafer lead to various disadvantages and hence, generally, the polished silicon wafer is rinsed with a rinsing composition to remove the abrasive grains (see, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-109931). Therefore, the rinsing composition is required to surely remove the abrasive grains adhering to the surface of the silicon wafer. In this regard, it should be noted that foreign matter is likely to adhere to the rinsed silicon wafer having poor surface wettability and therefore it is important that the rinsing composition allows the rinsed silicon wafer to maintain excellent surface wettability. However, conventional rinsing compositions do not satisfactorily meet this requirement and improvement of the compositions is desired.